Flatland

What more could you want from a book I don't know, so I read it again this year. An whimsical journey through the fascinating and surreal world of Flatland, societal critique is seamlessly intertwined with a groundbreaking exploration of dimensions, inspiring generations of thinkers and visionaries to ponder the limitless possibilities beyond our conventional understanding of what could be possible in other dimensions in space.

Leaving me equally tickled as it did in awe, Flatland is easily one of my favorite books of all time.

Delving into concepts quite difficult to think about, let alone explain in such a delightful way, it expanded my mind into not only a better understanding of ‘dimensions’ but also the possibility, and even, the probability, that there is much more in existence than our rather limited little human brains can comprehend.

As weird as it is wonderful, I found myself stopping at various points to either laugh or to try to explain to someone else (to their annoyance I’m… show more.

I remember being very surprised when I discovered that this book was written so long ago. It’s a social satire that is sadly still relevant. More importantly, it’s also a story constructed to point towards a transcendent reality. I love stories that are a springboard for the reader to journey into a deeper world. It is something I do in my own writing. Flatland is a book that can be used to flex the imagination; active imagination is the bedrock of my writing but is also vital in so many aspects of life. I think Flatland would be a great… show more.

Flatland deepened my interest in mathematics, science fiction, and social commentary when I first read it in the ‘80s. It is a (literally) pointed satire of 19th-century society that remains relevant today. The characters are literally two-dimensional shapes on a flat plane. The protagonist’s attempts to grapple with a mysterious third dimension forces him to re-evaluate both the cosmos and the social order in his community. This book is mind-expanding in the best sense of the word.

The idea of a fourth dimension grabbed the public’s attention in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Before Minkowski and Einstein popularized time as the fourth dimension, people were enthralled by the mind-expanding idea of a possible fourth physical dimension perpendicular to our three. Edwin Abbott was one of the first authors to write about this idea for a popular audience. His 1884 novella Flatland beautifully illustrates by analogy how to view higher dimensions by telling the story of two-dimensional figures (polygons and circles) encountering a being who lives in the third dimension. Flatland is also a satirical take… show more.